Friday, December 29, 2006
They Left Us This Year..
The First Lady Of Civil Rights, The 38th USA President and The Godfather Of Soul. They left us this year, great people of pure great soul. Here's Something about them for you to know, how this great people, changed lives.Coretta Scott King, The First Lady Of Civil Rights
Coretta Scott was born in Heiberger, Alabama and raised on the farm of her parents Bernice McMurry Scott, and Obadiah Scott, in Perry County, Alabama. She was exposed at an early age to the injustices of life in a segregated society. She walked five miles a day to attend the one-room Crossroad School in Marion, Alabama, while the white students rode buses to an all-white school closer by. Young Coretta excelled at her studies, particularly music, and was valedictorian of her graduating class at Lincoln High School. She graduated in 1945 and received a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. As an undergraduate, she took an active interest in the nascent civil rights movement; she joined the Antioch chapter of the NAACP, and the college's Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees. She graduated from Antioch with a B.A. in music and education and won a scholarship to study concert singing at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
In Boston she met a young theology student, Martin Luther King, Jr., and her life was changed forever. They were married on June 18, 1953, in a ceremony conducted by the groom's father, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Coretta Scott King completed her degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory and the young couple moved in September 1954 to Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. had accepted an appointment as Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
They were soon caught up in the dramatic events that triggered the modern civil rights movement. When Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat on a Montgomery city bus to a white passenger, she was arrested for violating the city's ordinances giving white passengers preferential treatment in public conveyances. The black citizens of Montgomery organized immediately in defense of Mrs. Parks, and under Martin Luther King's leadership organized a boycott of the city's buses. The Montgomery bus boycott drew the attention of the world to the continued injustice of segregation in the United States, and led to court decisions striking down all local ordinances separating the races in public transit. Dr. King's eloquent advocacy of nonviolent civil disobedience soon made him the most recognizable face of the civil rights movement, and he was called on to lead marches in city after city, with Mrs. King at his side, inspiring the citizens, black and white, to defy the segregation laws.
The visibility of Dr. King's leadership attracted fierce opposition from the supporters of institutionalized racism. In 1956, white supremacists bombed the King family home in Montgomery. Mrs. King and the couple's first child narrowly escaped injury. The Kings had four children in all: Yolanda Denise; Martin Luther, III; Dexter Scott; and Bernice Albertine. Although the demands of raising a family had caused Mrs. King to retire from singing, she found another way to put her musical background to the service of the cause. She conceived and performed a series of critically acclaimed Freedom Concerts, combining poetry, narration and music to tell the story of the Civil Rights movement. Over the next few years, Mrs. King staged Freedom Concerts in some of America's most distinguished concert venues, as fundraisers for the organization her husband had founded, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Dr. King's fame spread beyond the United States, and he was increasingly seen not only as a leader of the American civil rights movement, but as the symbol of an international struggle for human liberation from racism, colonialism and all forms of oppression and discrimination. In 1957, Dr. King and Mrs. King journeyed to Africa to celebrate the independence of Ghana. In 1959, they made a pilgrimage to India to honor the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, whose philosophy of nonviolence had inspired them. Dr. King's leadership of the movement for human rights was recognized on the international stage when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. In 1964, Mrs. King accompanied her husband when he traveled to Oslo, Norway to accept the Prize.
In the 1960s, Dr. King broadened his message and his activism to embrace causes of international peace and economic justice. Mrs. King found herself in increasing demand as a public speaker. She became the first woman to deliver the Class Day address at Harvard, and the first woman to preach at a statutory service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. She served as a Women's Strike for Peace delegate to the 17-nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 1962. Mrs. King became a liaison to international peace and justice organizations even before Dr. King took a public stand in 1967 against United States intervention in the Vietnam War.
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Channeling her grief, Mrs. King concentrated her energies on fulfilling her husband's work by building The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change as a living memorial to her husband's life and dream. Years of planning, fundraising and lobbying, lay ahead, but Mrs. King would not be deterred, nor did she neglect direct involvement in the causes her husband had championed. In 1969 , Coretta Scott King published the first volume of her autobiography, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr. In the 1970s, Mrs. King maintained her husband's commitment to the cause of economic justice. In 1974 she formed the Full Employment Action Council, a broad coalition of over 100 religious, labor, business, civil and women's rights organizations dedicated to a national policy of full employment and equal economic opportunity; Mrs. King served as Co-Chair of the Council.
In 1981, The King Center, the first institution built in memory of an African American leader, opened to the public. The Center is housed in the Freedom Hall complex encircling Dr. King's tomb in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of a 23-acre national historic site that also includes Dr. King's birthplace and the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he and his father both preached. The King Center Library and Archives houses the largest collection of documents from the Civil Rights era. The Center receives over one million visitors a year, and has trained tens of thousands of students, teachers, community leaders and administrators in Dr. King's philosophy and strategy of nonviolence through seminars, workshops and training programs.
Mrs. King continued to serve the cause of justice and human rights; her travels took her throughout the world on goodwill missions to Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. In 1983, she marked the 20th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington, by leading a gathering of more than 800 human rights organizations, the Coalition of Conscience, in the largest demonstration the capital city had seen up to that time.
Mrs. King led the successful campaign to establish Dr. King's birthday, January 15, as a national holiday in the United States. By an Act of Congress, the first national observance of the holiday took place in 1986. Dr. King's birthday is now marked by annual celebrations in over 100 countries. Mrs. King was invited by President Clinton to witness the historic handshake between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yassir Arafat at the signing of the Middle East Peace Accords in 1993. In 1985 Mrs. King and three of her children were arrested at the South African embassy in Washington, D.C., for protesting against that country's apartheid system of racial segregation and disenfranchisement. Ten years later, she stood with Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg when he was sworn in as President of South Africa.
After 27 years at the helm of The King Center, Mrs. King turned over leadership of the Center to her son, Dexter Scott King, in 1995. She remained active in the causes of racial and economic justice, and in her remaining years devoted much of her energy to AIDS education and curbing gun violence. Although she died in 2006 at the age of 78, she remains an inspirational figure to men and women around the world.Gerald Ford, The 38th US PresidentWhen Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, he declared, "I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances.... This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts."
It was indeed an unprecedented time. He had been the first Vice President chosen under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.
Ford was confronted with almost insuperable tasks. There were the challenges of mastering inflation, reviving a depressed economy, solving chronic energy shortages, and trying to ensure world peace.
The President acted to curb the trend toward Government intervention and spending as a means of solving the problems of American society and the economy. In the long run, he believed, this shift would bring a better life for all Americans.
Ford's reputation for integrity and openness had made him popular during his 25 years in Congress. From 1965 to 1973, he was House Minority Leader. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1913, he grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He starred on the University of Michigan football team, then went to Yale, where he served as assistant coach while earning his law degree. During World War II he attained the rank of lieutenant commander in the Navy. After the war he returned to Grand Rapids, where he began the practice of law, and entered Republican politics. A few weeks before his election to Congress in 1948, he married Elizabeth Bloomer. They have four children: Michael, John, Steven, and Susan.
As President, Ford tried to calm earlier controversies by granting former President Nixon a full pardon. His nominee for Vice President, former Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, was the second person to fill that office by appointment. Gradually, Ford selected a cabinet of his own.
Ford established his policies during his first year in office, despite opposition from a heavily Democratic Congress. His first goal was to curb inflation. Then, when recession became the Nation's most serious domestic problem, he shifted to measures aimed at stimulating the economy. But, still fearing inflation, Ford vetoed a number of non-military appropriations bills that would have further increased the already heavy budgetary deficit. During his first 14 months as President he vetoed 39 measures. His vetoes were usually sustained.
Ford continued as he had in his Congressional days to view himself as "a moderate in domestic affairs, a conservative in fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs." A major goal was to help business operate more freely by reducing taxes upon it and easing the controls exercised by regulatory agencies. "We...declared our independence 200 years ago, and we are not about to lose it now to paper shufflers and computers," he said.
In foreign affairs Ford acted vigorously to maintain U. S. power and prestige after the collapse of Cambodia and South Viet Nam. Preventing a new war in the Middle East remained a major objective; by providing aid to both Israel and Egypt, the Ford Administration helped persuade the two countries to accept an interim truce agreement. Detente with the Soviet Union continued. President Ford and Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev set new limitations upon nuclear weapons.
President Ford won the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1976, but lost the election to his Democratic opponent, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia.
On Inauguration Day, President Carter began his speech: "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land." A grateful people concurred. At the age of 93, Gerlad R. Ford left us on 29th December 2006.James Brown, The Godfather Of SoulJames Brown, the singer, songwriter, bandleader and dancer who indelibly transformed 20th-century music, died on the 25th of December 2006 in Atlanta. He was 73 and lived in Beech Island, S.C., across the Savannah River from Augusta, Ga.
Mr. Brown died of congestive heart failure after being hospitalized for pneumonia, said his agent, Frank Copsidas.
Mr. Brown sold millions of records in a career that lasted half a century. In the 1960s and 1970s he regularly topped the rhythm-and-blues charts, although he never had a No. 1 pop hit. Yet his music proved far more durable and influential than countless chart-toppers. His funk provides the sophisticated rhythms that are the basis of hip-hop and a wide swath of current pop.
Mr. Copsidas said that Mr. Brown had participated in an annual Christmas toy giveaway in Augusta on Friday but had been hospitalized on Saturday. After canceling performances planned for midweek, Mr. Brown on Sunday night got his doctor’s approval to perform on Saturday in New Jersey and on New Year’s Eve at B.B. King’s nightclub in New York.
Mr. Copsidas said Mr. Brown used one of his best-known slogans to convey his dedication to his fans: “I’m the hardest working man in show business, and I’m not going to let them down.”
Through the years, Mr. Brown did not only call himself “the hardest working man in show business.” He also went by “Mr. Dynamite,” “Soul Brother No. 1,” “the Minister of Super Heavy Funk” and “the Godfather of Soul,” and he was all of those and more.
His music was sweaty and complex, disciplined and wild, lusty and socially conscious. Beyond his dozens of hits, Mr. Brown forged an entire musical idiom that is now a foundation of pop worldwide.
“I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know,” he wrote in an autobiography.
The funk Mr. Brown introduced in his 1965 hit “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” was both deeply rooted in Africa and thoroughly American. Songs like “I Got You (I Feel Good),” “Cold Sweat,” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine” and “Hot Pants” found the percussive side of every instrument and meshed sharply syncopated patterns into kinetic polyrhythms that made people dance.
Mr. Brown’s innovations reverberated through the soul and rhythm-and-blues of the 1970s and the hip-hop of the next three decades. The beat of a 1970 instrumental “Funky Drummer” may well be the most widely sampled rhythm in hip-hop.
Mr. Brown’s stage moves — the spins, the quick shuffles, the knee-drops, the splits — were imitated by performers who tried to match his stamina, from Mick Jagger to Michael Jackson, and were admired by the many more who could not. Mr. Brown was a political force, especially during the 1960s; his 1968 song “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud” changed America’s racial vocabulary. He was never politically predictable; in 1972 he endorsed the re-election of Richard M. Nixon.
Mr. Brown led a turbulent life, and served prison time as both a teenager and an adult. He was a stern taskmaster who fined his band members for missed notes or imperfect shoeshines. He was an entrepreneur who, at the end of the 1960s, owned his own publishing company, three radio stations and a Learjet (which he would later sell to pay back taxes). And he performed constantly: as many as 51 weeks a year in his prime.
Mr. Brown was born May 3, 1933, in a one-room shack in Barnwell, S.C. As he would later tell it, midwives thought he was stillborn, but his body stayed warm, and he was revived. When his parents separated four years later, he was left in the care of his aunt Honey, who ran a brothel in Augusta, Ga. As a boy he earned pennies buck-dancing for soldiers; he also picked cotton and shined shoes. He was dismissed from school because his clothes were too ragged.
He was imprisoned for petty theft in 1949 after breaking into a car, and paroled three years later. While in prison he sang in a gospel group. After he was released, he joined a group led by Bobby Byrd, which eventually called itself the Flames. At first, Mr. Brown played drums with the group and traded off lead vocals with other members. But with his powerful voice and frenzied, acrobatic dancing, he soon emerged as the frontman.
In 1955 the Flames recorded “Please Please Please” in the basement studio of a radio station in Macon, Ga. A talent scout heard it on local radio and signed the Flames to a recording contract with King Records. A second version, recorded in Cincinnati in 1956, became a million-selling single.
Nine follow-up singles were flops until, in 1958 a gospel-rooted ballad, “Try Me,” went to No. 1 on the rhythm-and-blues chart. Mr. Brown followed up with more ballads, although the Flames’ stage shows would turn them into long, frenzied crescendos. His trademark routine of collapsing onstage, having a cape thrown over him and tossing it away for one more reprise, again and again, would leave audiences shouting for more.
In 1960 Mr. Brown’s version of “Think” put a choppy, Latin-flavored beat — hinting at the funk to come — behind a sustained vocal and pushed him back into the R&B Top 10 and the pop Top 40.
11:12 AM
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Merry Christmas!!
!! . Merry Christmas . !!
Merry X'mas to all!! Whee!! Went to Unc Ricky's hse fr X'mas partae!! He has dis super huge Boxer though..scary scary..brought Spice girlgirl along..she was the center of attraction!! Whee!! Hahax!! Den ate all the delicious food dere..yumyum..fav was the Roast Beef. Tasted great wif the Black Pepper and some other funni sauce.. =P Hated the Foundue though..sooo bitter and thick..YUCKS!! Turkey was great too!! Aunt Cindy's such a great cook!! Den received prezzies, played games n sang songs!! Funfun!! Gt my pencil box from the wallet shop dat is exactly the same design as my wallet!! Hehe!! =D nc Desmond bought fr me de.. =) Thx!!
Before dat wen to Gen Pets to give Spice a nice bath and some trimming n touch up b4 the big partae on Sundae. She lurves it!! My little bundle of joy!! Hehe!! =P Saw Haze and her bf i tiink he's called Patrick =P dere as well!! Saw Soda's Kale too!! =D So guai lehs Kale..my Spice kept bullying her.. >=( Bt Kale didn't bother anyways.. =)
Spent X'mas the boring way..went fr lunch den wanted to go Ikea den the queue so dam long den came back.. =P
Here's some pics fr u guys to see!! It's Spice's siblings!! Although she has two more!! =D
This Is Spice's Sister, Kale!! (Pronounced as KELLY)
Spice's Brother, Rusty Boy!!
3:46 PM
Friday, December 22, 2006
Another Big-Headed Photo
Jus wanna share wif u guys dis Big Head photo of Spice dardar..so cute!! =D
Me and my Big Head Pic !!
Cute Me!! =P
4:16 PM
X'mas; The Merriest Times
Heyys ppl!! Verii long nvr post liaos..Spice is makin my verii bz..hais..anways, last Thursday went Sentosa wif Blossom, Leon and Mrs. Lim!! Yippee!! Funfun!! Me and Blossy eat the Dim Sum hingy @ Vivo and Leon ate the French Toast thingy..and i drank the Milo Dinosaur!! Hehe!! Then after dat we the heavy rain stop..den we all take bus to Sentosa..we go dere plae lyk siao!! Fav was the Senjorii Golf thingy!! We all plae in the rain..all wet sia..dunno whether anyone of us gotten sick or nt..hehe..bt it was truly fun..
This Mondae was Spice girlgirl's first bath!! She nvr struggle at all!! Bt ran out of the bathroom wen she's all wet!! Den after dat dry her fr lyk 5-10 mins den she's smeliin delicious!! Yum!!
Latr we went X'mas shopping!! Went to Suntec and shopshopshop @ Minitoons!! Yay!! =D Bought over $100+ of prezzies worr!! All @ Minitoons!! Bt nt i pay one.. =P
Well, here's some pics of Spice b4 and after her bath!!Before; Lookin Grouchy.. >=(
After; Still A Little Grouchy.. =D
10:56 AM
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
The Third Day Has Comed..
It's alreadii da third day dat Spice entered our lives liaos!! Whee!! Dis mornin she was starting to get a little active. Keep wan to trip me, i cleaned her, groomed her and she finally poo-ed at the newspaper!! Yay!! Bt later she pee on the floor again..hais..so nw she's sitting on my lap and lying her head on my thigh and slowly slowly going back into her sleep again..hahax!! She's such an angel!!Look At My Ears!!
9:33 AM
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Presenting Princess Spice!!
Heya ppl!! Presenting to you Princess Spice!! Hahax!! She's here since yesterdae and she whined through the whole nite!! Bt it's alrite she's after all adapting to her nw environment. Todae fed her fr da first time and she was super hungry!! Eat lyk a bullet train lyk dat. Den she started her pee-poo program!! Pee-poo anywhere den kena beating from me.. =D Heart pain bt mus do it wads..Den nw she at least noes dat pee-poo at other places is wrong..well, will upload some pics fr u guys to see!! Remember to noitce her cute ears k??Copyrighted Spice!!
10:07 AM
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
I Find This Weird..
Heyys ppl. I jus came accross dis thread in the forum and i find it real strange..could dis thins realli happen?? Take a look at this quoted message..Quoted From Dogs Forum S'pore, Posted By Purplemoon:Hi, i had my MS for 5 months old now and i will bring her for walks in the evening or at night everyday. normally she is very friendly and will want to approach whoever she sees. however, just last sat, during her walks, she stopped suddenly and gave a very low growl. i look up and saw a guy in his 30s standing around 3 metres in front. he seemed to be playing tai-ji under the low beam lights in the park but his actions seemed weird. Baby started to growl more fiecely and very loud, like an adult male dog, something i had never heard before. i was just wondering, could Baby have sense that that guy is evil that's why she behaved strangly?Dogs r usually gentle tempered, especially the Miniature Schnauzer. However, hw cum Baby jus changed her temper and started growling lyk she felt threatened..??
2:00 PM
Time Has Come!!
Heyys ppl!! Another 5 more days to da arrival of my girl!! Hahax!! Verii excited!! Hahax!! On Mondae gt some stupid SBG thin from 7.30am to 9pm sia..from morning to nite..siao on lah my CCA..den i go around S'pore deliver thins to old n needy ppl. =D Den wen deliver haflway gt dis uncle who's deaf and den me and my fren bang bang bang on da door he also cannot hear. Den latr dis single mother woman go to da door dere and shout shout shout n bam bam bam den latr da uncle come out. Hahax!! Bt she gt quite a cute little Westie lahs..looks ill-treated though..hais..some owners. Tonite gt Science tution lo!! Hahax!! Excited excited!! Isaac also joinin my tution worrs!! Isaac is me BESTBESTBEST fwen!! I knew him since..hmmm..P3 i tiink. We same CCA in primary skul and same class fr 3 yrs in primary skul as well. Bt nw we diferent skul le.. =( e go Dunman i go St. Hilda's..boohoo..anwyays, wokin to tution wif Blossom tonite..Den tmr dunno wat to do liaos..hahax!! Oh!! Tmr need pack bag le!! Need to go retreat liaos!!Todae Auntie Pauline kol me n tell me whether i'm free on Fridae or nt..hahax!! She ask me wan go wokwok wif her doggies. Den i told her i nid go retreat on Fridae den she sae she'll kol me bak after she chek wich dae she wan to take leave bt until nw she also haven kol yt.. =)Also on Sundae went to GPS at Tanjong Katong n met up wif Haze and JoyJoy da Yorkie!! JoyJoy on heat worrs..Den met dis lady by the name of Peggy. She seems friendly though n her shop sells things cheap!! Verii nice shop indeed!! Den bought a few stuffs from dere as well. Haze also shw us da clothes she bought at PLC at Vivo City yesterdae. She buy until $200++ worrs!! I tiink she go buy somemore latr.. =D Bt da tees were cute. All gt Minnie Mouse on it de. =PAnyways, buaiis!!
1:45 PM
